Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company

* Problem Statement:
John Ziegler, the district sales manager for the Dallas area of Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company, as manager only for one year, he faced the challenges with his reps and the logjam he had created as a result of his recruiting activities. In addition, John had to prepare some written comments on the performance of each of his reps for the past year; also he had to decide what to do about the two reps, Jared and Marty. Overall, John saw his problems were really people problems and people opportunities.

* Objectives: Solve the problems between John and his reps, customize available leadership as district sales manager.

* Facts of The Case:
* Biographical Note of John In Arapahoe Pharmaceutical
a) John had joined Arapahoe Pharmaceutical as a sales rep immediately after graduating from University. b) John’s willingness, personality, and communications skills, plus his superior’s encouragement and guidance, helped him in quickly achieving above-average productivity and allowed him to win a transfer to a greater area. c) John’s superior, Besty, worked regularly with him and delegated to him some of the training of new sales reps. d) A year later he was selected to attend his company’s leadership training program, after that, John was promoted to be district sales manager for the Dallas area.

* Advice
Before took over the position, John was provided further training by company and some advice from the general sales manager Tom Boyle: a) John should give the sales reps in Dallas time to get to know him and he them; b) John would be surprised and disappointed to discover that all the reps didn’t operate with the same level of efficiency that he did not use the same methods he used when he was a rep; c) John shouldn’t try to correct too many deficiencies at one time; d) Telling someone to do something doesn’t necessarily get it done; e) Everyone doesn’t remember hearing something the same way; f) It’s better to have three sales reps working with you than ten working for you.

* Types of problems John encountered
John encountered many problems and challenges during the past one year. Such as follow: a) Dick McClure—-had been described as a good sense of humor and a highly individualistic style of selling. But Dick was curt with John, relatively subdued, and at other times almost hostile. Finally the problem was out in the open, Dick was bitter because John got promoted not him, he believed he was the best in the district. After trying to understand each other, their relationship improved steadily. b) Larry Palmer—-the first sales rep that John had hired since he was a district sales manager. John spent a lot of time and effort on Larry, but he still had difficulty acquiring the necessary of the work. Larry had to leave even John had carried him much longer than he probably should have. And then, Peggy Doyle who was doing such a terrific job took Larry’s place. c) Jared Murphy—-he had done reasonably well but hadn’t really lived up to his potential.

Lately, Jared seemed to have lost interest and acted passive. John thought that Jared was able to exert the necessary self-discipline to do what was required without a lot of personal attention from him. But that proved was wrong. d) Marty Nakai—-he had about every good quality anyone could want in a salespeople, except maturity and self-control. He asked John frequently what else he had to do to get promoted. John wished Marty would develop more patience and self-discipline. John should take a way to help Marty. e) With other sales reps—-John had spent too much time for recruiting and the new sales reps, and extended the intervals since he last worked in the field with his above-average sales reps. The sales reps felt that being ignored. John tried to explain, but they weren’t buying into his excuse. Overall, the major problems are that between John and Jared Murphy, Marty Nakai, and other above-average sales reps.

* Alternative Courses of Action
1. To Jared Murphy：①Encourage Jared to catch a better performance, make a plan for his future in company in order to live up to his potential; ②Let Jared go if he want to leave the company. 2. To Marty Nakai: ①Talk to the regional sales manager, try to look for a vacant position in order to give a opportunity to Marty for promotion; ②Try to comfort Marty, and delegate to him some more responsible work, for example, training of new sales reps; ③Just ask him be patient exactly. 3. To other sales reps: ①Identify each salespeople’s ability and willingness to the work, set up objective and plan for them; ② Let them work by themselves, trust them have enough self-discipline to do what was required.

* This current year, Jared’s performance was not hit the quota yet, because his Sales to Quota ratio only 88%. * Compare to others, his Expenses per call is higher than average, but his Sales per call is lower than average. That means that Jared spent more but made less. As stated by John, Jared had done reasonably well but hadn’t really lived up to his potential. When John challenged Jared’s own evaluation of his performance Jared sheepishly commented that he “wondered whether you’d let it pass.” When John pressed him for potential in his territory, Jared quickly replied: “ I didn’t know you cared that much.”Jared’s problem as follow: * Jared had sufficient experience and intelligence, but he was not confident enough; * Jared felt that John didn’t care about him, he needed encouragement and personal attention from John; * Jared seemed have no clear career path for the future.

Jared had a higher ability but lower willingness now, so as a sales manager, it is better try to talk to Jared, give him more support. To this kind of sales reps like Jared, a sales manager’s role is to provide recognition, to listen actively, and to facilitate problem solving by supporting the salesperson’s efforts to use what they have learned.

* Marty’s performance exceeded the quota 9% the year before; * Compare to others’, Marty’s Physicians in Territory was the highest, Sales per Call was higher than average, but Expenses per Call was lower than average. * Marty is a typically productive sales reps.

But the problem John faced with Marty is that Marty lack of patience and self-discipline. Marty was smart, eager, highly motivated, and extremely ambitious. His favorite question of John was：“What else do I have to do to get promoted?”

Have high abilities and high willingness, to this kind of salespeople like Marty, should do： * As a sale manager, John doesn’t have to tell Marty what to do, the focus of the sales manager-salesperson interaction is to reach agreement on the cause of a problem, but control of how to deal with the problem is left to the salesperson. That means delegate to the salespeople. * Marty was very eager, enthusiastic, he wanted to do as much as he can in order to achieve the requirements for promotion. So, sales managers should look for ways to enrich Marty’s current sales position. For example, delegate to Marty some of the training of new sales reps, to help introduce new products, or to develop key customer accounts. * John should work with Marty, not ask Marty work for him. That make opportunity to empower Marty, let him know he was not enough for promotion.

* With Other Sales Reps
Every sales reps’ performance, ability, willingness, character is different, find a right way the lead the sale team is so important. * Whatever how different the sales reps are, they have a common point that is everybody needs the attention from the superior. They all need encouragement, compliment and sometime help. * As follow Exhibit4, these several sales reps’ performance exceeded the quota already, they had sufficient experience and intelligence to exert the necessary self-discipline to do what was required. So the leadership to this kind of salespeople should use Delegating style. John should not have to control everything, but follow up the task and pay appropriate attention.

* Recommendation:
Based on the analysis presented above it, it would be better to encourage Jared to catch a better performance, make a plan for his future in company in order to live up to his potential; to empower Marty and delegate to him some more responsible work, to pay appropriate attention to different salespeople.

* Plan of Action:
Formalize a set of objectives and specific plans for the coming year, included how to deal with each sales reps.